Florida Gov. Demanding Proof from Senator over Hacking Claim
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, calling the allegations sensational, demanded on Friday that U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson provide proof to back up his claim that Russian operatives have penetrated some of his state’s election systems ahead of this year’s crucial election.
Scott, a Republican, is running against Nelson, a Democrat, in November’s midterm elections.
During a campaign stop in Tampa, Scott said Nelson must provide “evidence for his claims.”
“This cannot be swept under the rug,” the governor said. “Bill Nelson must come clean and provide a thorough explanation. Elections are not something to try to scare people about.”
Nelson earlier in the week said that Russians were able to get inside the election systems of “certain counties” and “now have free rein to move about.”
He added that “the threat is real and elections officials — at all levels — need to address the vulnerabilities.”
The senator, who is the ranking member of the cyber subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has not provided any more details, saying that additional information is classified.
Florida officials responded to Nelson’s comments by saying they had “zero information” to back up his claims of Russian meddling.
Secretary of State Ken Detzner sent a letter to the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee asking for “immediate transparency and cooperation” in sharing any information about hacking efforts.
When asked about it, Nelson put out a statement that said, “I hope the appropriate federal officials find a way to immediately provide them all the information they can to protect our elections.”
Sara Sendek, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, issued a statement Wednesday that said: “While we are aware of Senator Nelson’s recent statements, we have not seen any new compromises by Russian actors of election infrastructure. That said, we don’t need to wait for a specific threat to be ready.”
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote a letter with Nelson last month to all 67 of the county election supervisors in their state warning them of potential threats.
Rubio on Friday put out a statement in which he did not confirm or deny Nelson’s allegations.
“Given the importance of Florida in our national politics, our states election systems have been and will remain a potentially attractive target for attacks by foreign actors,” Rubio said. “While I firmly believe states should remain in the lead on conducting elections, the federal government should stand ready to assist as needed in confronting actual or potential attacks from determined foreign adversaries.”
U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, a Florida Republican and a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said, “I have seen no evidence that Russians penetrated Florida’s election system — but it definitely could happen.” Rooney is one of the House sponsors of a measure that would allow state and local governments to voluntarily apply for grants to replace outdated voting machines and modernize their elections systems.
Scott in May ordered the hiring of special election security consultants after Florida legislators rejected his request for nearly $500,000 to create a stand-alone cybersecurity unit in the Department of State. Legislators, however, did agree to set aside $1.9 million to provide grants to local election officials to purchase a security monitoring service.
Ahead of this year’s election, Florida is also distributing more than $14 million in federal election security grants to local election officials.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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